People, Equity, and the Environment

In an address held at YSE on Monday, January 23, Nyeema C. Harris, Knobloch Family Associate Professor of Wildlife and Land Conservation, paid tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of impactful systems change using the principals of ecology as an analogy.

How to balance shared stewardship, co-management, and tribal sovereignty to protect and sustain more than 100 million acres of Indigenous lands in the U.S.  is a fundamental question in conservation. Pat Gonzales-Rogers, a former director and current consultant for the Bears Ears Coalition, has brought his deep experience on these issues to the Yale School of the Environment this year. 

Highlighted by a keynote address by Georgetown Professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò on climate reparations, the annual Global Environmental Justice Conference explored difficult environmental justice issues including the growing scale of climate refugees, the burden food insecurity places on women, and implementing cultural preservation measures in climate action.

Gabriela Rodriguez ’23 MEM has been named a recipient of the Switzer Environmental Fellowship, a prestigious program that supports future environmental leaders.

YSE Associate Dean for International Engagement Gordon Geballe is retiring after a nearly 50-year affiliation with the School and Yale. He is known for always keeping students at the center, his ability to build community and befriend everyone in the room, and his dedication to New Haven.

Returning to her native Brooklyn, Lovinia Reynolds is graduating from YSE with an eye on climate justice in the largest city in the U.S.

A childhood appreciation of South Florida’s dunes and mangroves led Kristina Rodriguez to become deeply invested in conserving the state’s coastal ecosystems for future generations.

Restoring Indigenous power in land stewardship and co-management policies were at the center of a YSE-Wyss Foundation panel discussion that brought together Indigenous voices from across the country.

More than 800 people from 24 countries attended this year’s three-day virtual conference, a global conversation on justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion hosted by YSE that also serves as a platform for emerging environmental leaders who are historically underrepresented in the environmental field and/or committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field.

Study finds that though air pollution is highly regulated in California, environmental policy as a whole is not protecting all communities in an equal way: Regulatory machinery has been preferentially protecting White, non-Hispanic people from exposure.

A first of its kind study focusing on infrastructure inequality finds that infrastructure inequalities are ingrained in the urbanization process.

A line up of speakers from industry, government, NGOs, and the media, among other sectors, will share their expertise in environmental justice, institutional diversity, and other environmental topics at the annual conference.

In a paper published in the American Journal of Public Health, YSE authors Michelle Bell and Leo Goldsmith ’20 MEM lay out the case for a more inclusive environmental justice movement for the LGBTQ+ community, who are disproportionately affected by environmental exposures.

To address issues of equity and justice in worldwide efforts to advance restoration and conservation and deforestation, a new paper co-authored by YSE's Director of Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative Eva Garen outlines 10 principles for effective, equitable, and transformative landscapes.

YSE Senior Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Dr. Dorceta Taylor will address MLK Jr. and his work at the forefront of environmental justice issues at an upcoming panel in February.